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A Rose For Emily Mental Illness Essay

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Mental Illness in “A Rose for Emily” In William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” the theme of mental illness is central to the plot and character development. Faulkner’s protagonist, Miss Emily Grierson, is an eccentric, reclusive woman who becomes progressively more isolated and unstable throughout the story. This instability of Emily is cleverly conveyed by Faulkner in the non-sequential structure of this short story. The reader is taken on a rollercoaster of emotions and curiosity through the disarrayed sections until the very end, where the mysterious truth is revealed about Miss Emily Grierson. At the heart of Emily’s mental illness is her inability to accept change and let go of the past. This is evident in her refusal to pay taxes "’I received a paper, yes,’ Miss Emily said. ‘Perhaps he considers himself the sheriff . . . I have no taxes in Jefferson’” (Faulkner, 2), her insistence on maintaining her family social status, and her refusal to let anyone into her home. Her mental state is further exacerbated by the death of her father which leaves her alone and vulnerable. She denied her father’s death for three days straight until …show more content…

The decaying house also symbolizes Emily's deteriorating mental state. As the years went by, and the times kept changing, Miss Emily and her home remained the same– broken down and rotted. Another example of Faulkner’s symbolism is through the structure of the story itself. He crafts each section out of order to emphasize the unpredictability of Miss Emily’s mental turmoil. He begins and ends the story with her death, while the middle sections adopt a complicated chronology of her life, revealing instances of her mysterious and closed-off manner. “WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died” (Faulkner, 1). “They held the funeral on the second day, with the town coming to look at Miss Emily beneath a mass of bought flowers…” (Faulkner,

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